Seeding attachment.



110-. 729,893. v PATENTED JUNE 2, 1903. L E. K. REA.

SEEDING ATTACHMENT.

APPLIOATION FILED JAN. 10. 1903.

N0 MODEL. V SHEETS-SHEET 1| No. 729,893. PATENTED JUNEZ', 1903.

E. K. REA.

SEEDING ATTACHMENT. APPLICATION P ILBD JAN. 10. 1903 N0 MODEL. 3 SKIRTS-SHEET THE NORRIS PETERS ca. murqgn'uo. WASHINGTON, o. c

PATENTED JUNE 2, 1903.

s sums-sham s.

E. K; REA.

SEEDING' ATTACHMENT. APPLICATION FILED JAN. 10. 1903. N0 MODEL.

\ M n! l NM A mm m 8 E WW R kw on mm. mh m um v QN i I PatentedJ'une 2, 1903.

P TENT OFFICE.-

EDMUND K. REA, OVID, MISSOURI.

SEEDINQ ATTACHMENT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Iatent lilo. 729,893, dated June 2, 1903. Applicationfilegl January 1051963. Serial 115.138.5323. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EDMUND K REA, a citizen of the United States, and a'resident of Ovid, county of Ray, and Stateof Missouri, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Seeding Attachments, of which the following is a specification, and which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, forming a part thereof.

This invention relates to a machine or an attachment for cultivators or other agricultural machinesfor sowing or distributing broadcast grass and other seeds.

The invention has for its object to provide a machine of this class which shall be particularly, though not necessarily, adapted to the seeding of land already'covered with a crop of growing corn or the like; and it con-1 sists generally of an arch-frame cultivator having a seed-hopper, a distributing-wheel," and a conduit leading from the hopper to the wheel, whereby as the machine is drawn over the field straddling a row of corn the seed will be scattered over the surrounding land.

The invention also has reference to an inn proved form of distributing-Wheel and to the mechanism for delivering the seed to such, wheel or other device for distributing or scattering the same broadcast and to thelocation; and arrangement of T saidivheel' in order that the best results may be secured. i

The invention consists of the arrangement, and combination of parts hereinafter particu-.

larly described, specifically designated in the 35 claims, and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which-- i I Figure 1 isa side elevation of an ordinary cultivator; showing applied thereto 1 a seedsowing attachment constructed in accordance with my invention. Fig. 2 is a front elevation of the same with only one of the seeding attachments in place. Fig. 3 is aplan view. Fig. 4 .is a view, partially in section, of the seeding attachment proper. Fig. 5 is a section on the line a: m of Fig. 4. Fig. 6 relates to a detail of therotatingscattering or distributing Wheel. Fig. 7 illustrates a modification of the invention. Fig. 8 is a section onthe line y y of Fig. 7. Fig. 9 is a plan of a modification of the distributing-wheel, and Fig. 10 is a diametrical section of the distributing-wheel seen in Fig. 9.

I have illustrated the invention as an attachment to an ordinary wheeled cultivator, although it is to be understood thatit is applicable to' an agricultural machine of any other character.

The machine shown consists .of the arch frame 15, mounted upon wheels 16 and having connected thereto any preferred cultivating device. or devices, as the beams 17, carrying cultiyating-shovels 1S and provided witlr-handleslil, Located on the frame and attachedthereto bysuitable brace-rods is a hopper 20: 'In order vto removably secure the hopper tothe frame of the cultivator, brace; rods'or bars 21, fixed to the hopper-body 20 and bolted to the arch of the frame, may be employed, and also a rod 2,2 likewise secured to the hopper, and-bolted, as at 23, to that portion of vtheframe towhich the draftapparatus .is designed to be attached. Below the hopper 20 and disposed transversely thereof is a tubular casing-24, which .may be formed integral therewith or made {as an attachment and riveted thereto. The .bottom of the hopper is provided with an aperture opening into the casing 24 and adapted to be closed or partially closed by a :slide 26 for regulating the feed, a thumbscrew 27, passingthrough a guide 28 and impinging the slide, being designed to securethe latter in its adjusted position. Journaled in thelclosed'end's of the tubular casing is a-shaft 29, whichis provided within the casing'with a worm or screwSO, i11- tended to feed the'seed entering the casing through the aperture 25 to a spout 31, leading from the advance end of the tubular casing andcomi'nunicating with a downwardlyextending or vertical tube 32, which terminates over and is adapted to deliver the seed to the scattering-wheel hereinafter to be described.

The ends of the shaft 29 extend beyond the casing 24, and fixed to that end adjacent to the carrying-wheel 16 at that side'of 'th'e cultivator is ElfSPl'OCkQlB-WhGGl 33, to which motion is communicated through the medium of a chain 34, driven by a sprocket-wheel 35, fixed to the carrying-wheellfi.

The shaft 29' has secured to its end opposite the sprocket 33 a bevel-gear 36, which transmits motion to a pinion 37, mounted on a vertical shaft 38, the upper end of which is supported by and rotates in a-hanger 39, depending from the bottom of the hopper 20, as shown in Figs. 4 and 5. The lower end of the shaft 38 projects below the mouth of the tube and has secured thereto a seedscattering device, as best seen in Fig. 4. This distributing device is designed to be located in advance of the cultivating shovels or devices 18, so that the seed scattered thereby will be covered by the said shovels, and it may consist of a wheel rotatable in a horizontal plane and comprising a hub 40, in

which'the end of the shaft 38 is secured, and

. provided with a plurality of radiating flat blades or fingers 11,- preferably curved or arranged spirally, as shown in Fig. 6, and at the back of each, according to the direction of rotation of the wheel, is a vertical flange 42. In order to impart a quick rotary motion to the distributing-wheel, the bevel-gear 3G is made relatively larger than the pinion driven thereby.

A brace-rod 43, attached toa clamp 44, embracing the tube 32 and the shaft 38 and fastened to the hopper, may be provided for staying the said tube and shaft, which may also be secured near their lower end to the frame of the cultivator by a plate 45, as seen in Figs. 4 and 5.

In the operation of the machine the seed falls from the hopper through the aperture into the tubular casing 24: and is forced therefrom into the spout 31 by the worm 30, and passing through the tube 32 drops onto the blades or fingers of the rapidly-rotating distributing-wheel and is finally thrown centrifugally by the flanges 42 broadcast over the land, the curved or spiral arrangement of the blades or fingers 41 facilitating this action.

In the modification illustrated in Figs. 7 and SI dispense with the shaft 38 and utilize the tube both as means for rotating the dis tributing-wheel and for delivering the seed thereto. To this end, the tube designated 32 is mounted to rotate in a hanger 39 and provided with a bevel-pinion 37*, receiving motion from the gear 36 on the worm-shaft.

The seed is conveyed from the tubular casing 24 by a spout 31, which discharges the seed into the upper open end of the tube 32. The lower end of this tube passes through and turns in a casing which is bolted to the frame of the cultivator, the bottom edges of the said casing being curved upwardly and inwardly against the tube in order to provide a trough 4b to receive the seed,- and also to prevent the seed from becoming wedged in and ground between the bottom of the casing and the rotating tube 32. That portion of the tube within the casing is provided with openings 47, and the seed passing therethrough falls into the trough, which, being inclined toward one side, enables the seed to gravitate toward that side and pass through an opening 48, whence it falls onto the distributing-wheel. The latter in this construction is secured to the tube by a stem 49, which is fastened in the lower end of the tube. The operation is otherwise the same as that heretofore explained.

In lieu of the distributing-wheel just described I may employ the modified form illustrated in Figs. 9 and 10. This distributingwheel consists of a disk 50, fixed to the lower end of the shaft 38, and has on its upper face a plurality of radial blades or ribs 51, slightly curved in the same direction as the blades or fingers of the construction seen in Fig. (3. In order to strengthen the disk 50, it has secured to its under face a hub in which the end of the shaft 38 is fixed, and which is provided with radiating fingers 52, one of which is in line or substantially in line with each of the ribs 51, which are shown as terminating short of the center of the disk.

The seed-sowing attachment-11ereinbeforc described is simple in construction and very efficient in operation, and by means of the same the sowing of clover and other seeds and the last cultivating of a planted crop of corn and the covering of the seed may be ac complished in a single operation, thereby avoiding the necessity of going over the ground separately with a seeder and a cultivator.

An important feature of the invention resides in the location of the distributing-wheel near the ground and in preferably disposing the wheel so as to rotate in a horizontal plane. By this arrangement the seed will not be affected by the wind and will be delivered in such manner as not to fall onto the blades of the corn-plants already growing.

The seed is discharged upon the advancing side of the distributing wheel, and hence thrown forwardly, so as to be covered by the action of the cultivatorshovels. The a1- rangement of brace-rods as shown is not essential, as the seeder may be attached to any suitable-vehicle and the brace or attaching rods will of course be varied to conform to the frame of the machine.

I claim as my invention 1. In combination with a cultivator, a 110pper, a horizontally rotatable distributing Wheel located in advance of the cultivatorshovels, and means for delivering seed from the hopper to and only upon the advancing side of the distributing-wheel.

2. In combination with a cultivator, a l1orizontally-rotatable distributing-wheel located in advance of the cultivator-shovels, a hopper, a vertical shaft to which the distributingwheel is secured, and a conduit leading from the hopper for delivering seed to and only upon the advancing side of the distributingwheel.

3. In combination with an arch frame wheeled implement having a central unobstructed space under the arch, a seed-hopper, an actuated seed-distributing device located at the side of such unobstructed space,

ICO

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per to the distributer.

and a conduit leading from the hopper tothe distributing device.

4. In combination with an arch-frame cultivator having; an unobstructed archway, a hopper mounted on the frame, a rotatable distributing-wheel located in advance of the cultivator-shovels and below the hopper and 6. In a seeder, in combination, a hopper,

a rotatable distributing -Whcel comprising a disk having a plurality of curved radial ribs on its upper face, a shaft extending through the disk, a hub fixed to the lower face of the disk and in which the end of the shaft is fixed and which. is provided with a plurality of fingers one of which is substantially in line with each of the ribs, and a conduit for delivering seed from the hopper to the upper face of the Wheel. 7 i 7. In combination with an arch-frame cultivator, a. hopper a rotatable distributingwheel comprising a disk having a plurality of curved radial ribs on its upper face, terminating short of the center thereof, a shaft to which the Wheel is secured, a pluralityof fingersfixed to the under face of the disk and substantially in line with the ribs, and a conduit leading from the hopper and disoharging upon the distributing-WheeL EDMUND K. REA.

Witnesses:

ARTHUR B. SEIBOLD, E. M. KLATCHER. 

